1957 Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Coupe

The Alfa Romeo 1900 had a unitary chassis and powered by a twin-cam inline four-cylinder engine with hemispherical combustion chambers and aluminum-alloy cylinder head. A handful of examples were special-bodied Sprint and Super Sprint coupes that were built by coachbuilders such as Bertone, Castagna, Touring, Vignale, and Zagato. Between 1951 and 1954, 949 examples were five-window coupes bodied by Touring, using their famous Superleggera construction technique. Most were given the Super specification chassis, with a few receiving the Super Sprint specification, with twin downdraft Solex carburetors and a five-speed gearbox.

This particular Touring-bodied 1900C SS is a matching-numbers car that was completed on July 27, 1957. It was sold new on December 18th to Hoffman Motor Car Company of New York. It is a late-production example and one of just 854 examples built. It has the SS equipment including Borrani wirer wheels, five-speed floor-shifted manual transmission and twin carburetors. When it left the factory it was finished in red paint.

The car was given a comprehensive restoration in 2013. It is fitted with a Nardi steering wheel and vintage Autovox radio. The 1975cc dual overhead cam four-cylinder engine offers 115 horsepower and is mated to a five-speed floor-shift manual transmission.

By Daniel Vaughan | May 2016